Dirt School: The Derek Laughland Memorial Award Returns for 2020!
We’re proud to announce our continued involvement with the Derek Laughland Memorial Award for a third year, taking another two young passionate riders under our wing and providing them with £500 worth of Dirt School vouchers to be used for technical coaching sessions. New for this year, we’re also offering a prize for a selected cycling club – a full days coaching with Dirt School for 12 young riders – allowing even more youngsters to reap the benefits of this generous prize.
The Derek Laughland Memorial Award was set up after the tragic passing of a much-loved husband and father, due to a brain haemorrhage at the Scottish Enduro Series in October 2017. His family took comfort in the fact Derek was doing what he loved, and the Derek Laughland Memorial Award was born.
Derek absolutely loved riding and racing his bike and was much loved within the mountain bike community and enduro scene always being seen with a smile on his face. The Derek Laughland Memorial prize does an excellent job of capturing Derek’s legacy.
If you’re a young rider aged under 18 or representing a group of under 18s through a cycling club and would like to apply for the award this year, we’re now taking applications. Please answer the following questions through our comments section at the bottom of this page to be in for a chance of being selected by the Laughland family…
Young Male and Female Rider (under 18)
- Your age, location and length of time riding
- What do you love about riding your bike?
- How will the Derek Laughland Memorial Award benefit you?
You must have permission from your parent/guardian to enter.
Cycling Clubs
- Please give us a little bit of background info on your club
- How will the Derek Laughland Memorial Award benefit the young riders in your club?
Applications close at 6pm on Monday 12th October, with winners being announced at 6pm on Wednesday 14th October. Once a winner has been selected applications will be published publicly to share everyone’s inspiration and love for riding bikes.
Good luck!
1. I am 14 years old, from Cumbria and I usually ride for a few hours each ride a few times a week.
2. What I love about riding my bike is being outdoors doing exercise, spending time with friends, pushing myself to see how fast I can do certain descends or climbs but mainly to have fun.
3. The Derek Laughland memorial award would benefit me so I can use it to help me improve my riding and racing to become faster and better on a bike and the help improve my confidence on big jumps and fast sections.
Hi, my name is Oisin and I am 9yrs old and stay in Dalgety Bay. I have been riding since I was 3yrs old and now progressed and attend local DH events. I like to bike at Inners, Glentress, Comrie croft. I love the freedom and the adrenalin rush of getting from top to bottom in one piece. I see this award benefiting myself as I could get 1-1 coaching and really push myself further on the MTB circuit. Thanks for reading.
Your age, location and length of time riding?
I am 12 years old and I live in Auchterarder. My first ever race was the Hairy Coo and I did that when I was 8. I have been riding since I was 3. My first downhill race was at Innerleithen (Borders Mini Downhill) when I was 10.
What do you love about riding your bike?
I love riding with people but mostly I like the fun and adrenalin.
How will the Derek Laughland Memorial Award benefit you?
It will help me progress as a rider and sharpen my skills to help me podium at Highland Hardline and Borders Mini Downhill races. It would be great if I could race at some SDAs with the help of this course. It would also help me take one more step to my dream of becoming a UCI downhill mountain biker!
Thanks for for reading and hope to hear from you soon.
Lewis Green
1. 15 years old, living in Dunblane near Stirling, riding for about 5 years
2. I love riding for so many different reasons. I love it when you get to the top after a big climb and you can see for miles. No noises of any roads or anything, I just love how peaceful it is at the top of the hill hahah. I love trying to go as fast as I can and i love riding new trails with friends. That feeling when you’ve all smashed out a fast lap and get to the bottom and are all so buzzing. I love the mountain bike community too, everyone is so friendly and no matter what bike you’re riding or how good you are everyone is nice. When I ride by myself I always end up chatting to someone on the way up. Lastly, I love the feeling of racing. Just going round each stage and banging out a lap as fast as possible, the feeling you get when you nail all your planned out lines is mad haha.
3. My riding could really benefit from this award. It would be great to get some coaching as I feel like it’s always great to learn from a faster/more experienced rider. I’ve only done one coaching session before which was with Cathro in Dunoon and I felt like I really improved after that. I think it would help me look at lines I never thought of before and really go a bit faster haha. Scotty and Dereks local is my local spot too and I’ve been riding the trails they built together for a while, I think it would be mint to receive this award, cheers!
I am 14 and I have been riding since I was 3 years old. I have always loved to push myself and brake through to my next challenge and dont look back. I think this will benefit me a lot as I am mainly an xc rider but the last year or so I have been hooked on the enduro scene. Look forward to hearing from you. Gavin
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